A 9-year-old made more than $29 million on YouTube last year and is the highest paid YouTuber for the third year in a row

• 9-year-old Ryan Kaji topped out the Forbes list of the highest-paid YouTubers for the third year in a row.
• Kaji, who gained fame for his "unboxing" videos of toys, started making videos when he was four.
• This past year, he made nearly $30 million on YouTube alone. TV and branding deals are said to account for hundreds of millions more.

Apologies in advance, but you may feel bad about your life choices after reading this.

A 9-year-old has topped out the list of top-earning YouTube stars this year, making more than $29 million, according to Forbes. And this is the third year in a row that he's stood at the top of the list.

Others on the list include Rhett and Link (third with $20 million), and controversial beauty guru Jeffree Star (10th with $15 million).

The third-grader, who lives with his family in Texas, gained notoriety for his unboxing videos when he was just four. A video of him unboxing and reviewing toys from the movie "Cars" went viral and garnered more than a billion views and Kaji's "Ryan's World" channel took off from there.

Unboxing videos, where kids review toys or games, have become enormously popular on YouTube, and thousands are uploaded to the platform each month.

Ryan's success, say his parents Shion and Loanna Kaji, is because he's able to create a special bond with his viewers.

"I feel like Ryan's relationship with his fans is very unique and different from talent on TV," Shion told Business Insider earlier this year. "His relationship with his fans is more of a friendship where every time we meet Ryan's fans and their family, they always mention, 'Oh, my son or daughter thinks they are Ryan's best friend.'"

The Kaji family has been able to parlay their YouTube success into lucrative licensing, branding, and TV deals. The family now runs a 30-person production company called Sunlight Entertainment, which helps them produce the videos.

According to Forbes, the Ryan's World name has been licensed to more than 5,000 products. The family also produced a line of merchandise for Walmart, and Ryan has his own shows on Nickelodeon and Roku.

This Thanksgiving a float of Ryan as his superhero alter ego, bounded through the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. And in early December, he launched a virtual world on the popular videogame platform Roblox.

All told, Kaji's brand empire is said to be worth around $500 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.